The Thank You Economy

by Gary Vaynerchuk

  Even if you’re a small medical practice (or small business of any kind) and not living in the midst of a technophile environment like San Francisco, you should establish your social media presence. The customers in your area may be a little slower to get online than they might in other parts of the country, but they are coming. If people in San Francisco are talking to their dentist online, soon people in Kentucky will, too. In fact, they probably are already.

  You never know, you know? You never know what platform is going to explode. You never know which customer is going to mean the most to your business. The only way to prepare for all eventualities is to take some chances, and no matter what, treat every customer, online and in person, as though he or she is the most important customer in the world.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Hank Heyming: A Brief Example of Well-Executed Culture and Intent

  What do you call a lawyer who tweets?

  Smart.

  Heyming is an attorney who has used social media tools to build his practice within a global law firm, grow his personal brand, and communicate with his clients and the startup community. There might be many blogging, tweeting, skyping, Quora-contributing lawyers practicing on either coast, but in Richmond, Virginia, Heyming stands out as an example of how implementing and acting upon proper culture and intent can reap great rewards in the Thank You Economy.

  Taking Advantage of the Culture

  Culture has a lot to do with Heyming’s success. He is fortunate to work for a company that appears to understand that we are living and working in a world where a culture of trust and transparency propels business forward. In Heyming’s words, Troutman Sanders, where he works, is “enlightened,” which is not a term most of us are used to hearing in connection with a global law firm. As we’ve discussed, lawyers are generally risk-averse and conservative when it comes to adopting any technological innovation that increases a company’s or brand’s exposure to outside commentary. While the new crop of law school graduates may find it totally normal to have their lives, thoughts, and opinions open for scrutiny on Facebook and Twitter, in general lawyers in their mid-forties and up are still leery of social networking sites, and it’s reasonable to believe that lawyers in their mid-forties and up are at the helm of a large number of big law firms. It’s probably even reasonable for many of them to be nervous about letting their employees speak freely online—even attorneys who know their stuff can make boneheaded mistakes in judgment like anyone else; they have been reprimanded, fined, and even fired for posting information about cases or complaining about clients and judges online. The culture at Troutman Sanders seems to be unusually trusting for a large law firm. According to Heyming, it actively encourages its attorneys to pursue creative and innovative ways to build their practice. I can’t say whether the firm has incorporated all of the cultural building blocks we discussed in chapter four, but if Heyming has as much freedom as he seems to have, the firm has got an impressive handle on trusting their employees, which is not a claim many companies in less conservative fields can say. I give them props for that.

  Starting with Good Intent

  Heyming has created and spread his own culture as well. His passion is guiding and advising startups from conception to money-making maturity. When he moved to Virginia from Southern California, he was frustrated by how small and diffuse the entrepreneurial community was. At first he complained about it; then he decided it was up to him to nurture a solid network of local entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that would help him foster a thriving client base. So during his free time, he started offering pro bono or sharply discounted advice to startups. An entrepreneur himself, he knows how vulnerable young companies are as they try to gain their footing. “Once a company is up and rolling and has a few rounds of financing under its belt, it can typically throw a stick and hit a lawyer/accountant/consultant. But, when they are just starting out and are cranking code in their parent’s basement, they barely have money for ramen, much less advisors. This is where I see an opportunity to both build the ecosystem and, ultimately, help myself…I am a firm believer in ‘doing it right.’” He adds, “Today, this ecosystem is dependent on social media and connectivity. The founders I work with live and breathe Twitter and Skype, so I live and breathe Twitter and Skype. I work when they work—even if that means doing a Skype video conference at 11:30 at night so we can talk to the team member in Hyderabad.”

  Culture + Intent = Word of Mouth

  Heyming insists that it does not take a lot of time to offer fledgling startups his services, and his investment is quickly paid off once the companies get financing and he can start charging them like regular clients. The reward he has earned from his work has far outweighed any risk he might encounter by spending resources on companies that may never fly. In fact, his larger paying clients, many of whom started out as small startups, generate 90 percent of his workload even though they make up only 30 percent of his client base. Some of his clients are venture capital funds, and they, too, recognize that it’s in their best interest for Heyming to help grow their entrepreneurial community. Everybody wins: Troutman Sanders, which gives their attorneys free rein to build their practices as they see fit; Heyming, who gets to make money doing what he loves to do in a way that he loves to do it; the startups who just need a break; and the venture capitalists looking for their next investment opportunity.

  Of course, there are startups that never go anywhere, but Heyming has no reason to think of the time spent with clients who don’t make it big as a bad investment. Entrepreneurs are idea people, and they usually have more than one; they often come back to him with new ventures. At the very least, idea people love to talk to other idea people, which means the word of mouth from entrepreneurs whom he tries to help often brings him new business.

  In addition to the word of mouth spread by his current and former clients, paying and nonpaying, Heyming builds business by tweeting and blogging. He says he is contacted almost weekly by founders and investors who are inspired or intrigued by something he wrote.

  What One Lawyer Can Do, Anyone Can Do

  Overall, the details of Heyming’s path to success in the Thank You Economy are not that different from those of any of the other business owners or companies we spoke to for this book. He succeeds because he doesn’t draw lines in the sand when faced with the unfamiliar or unproven; he gets that at its core. Work is always about giving—efficiency, entertainment, relief, free time, peace of mind, opportunity, comfort—to other people; he cares deeply about his clients and recognizes that their success is his success. I think when Heyming describes the practice of law by saying “at base our practice is built around relationships,” he could be talking about any field or industry, including yours.

  The Big Picture

  No one is perfect, and I see ways in which each of the companies I’ve profiled could adjust and improve their social media initiatives. Then again, I’m well aware that there are things I could do to improve my own efforts. Sustaining relationships and leveraging social networks is challenging work. Yet the thing that strikes me about the individuals who are leading the companies and brands profiled in this book is their excitement. They work like animals, and the economy is still wobbly, but when they talk about their work, you get the definite sense that all they see are doors of opportunity flying open every day. It’s as though social media has given all its users an equal platform on which they can build not just their careers, but their dreams.

  Conclusion

  It’s not your imagination; marketing really has gotten harder. Markets are splintering, eyeballs are shifting, attention spans are waning, and the amount of information people are trying to absorb continues to multiply.* Where we consume media, and where and how we interact in person and online has changed at an astounding rate, and it is continuing to morph and expand every day. The only way brands and businesses are going to be able to adapt to and overcome these challenges is by conducting a virtual door-to-door campaign to wi
n over their customers’ hearts and minds. That’s a lot harder and more time-consuming than bombarding the market with a one-size-fits-all message. Yet those companies that are willing to get in the social media trenches with their customers will see that word of mouth can allow each individual engagement to have an impact hundreds of times greater than itself. If marketers commit to Thank You Economy principles wholeheartedly, reallocate their marketing resources properly, and find ways not only to take advantage of the best that social media and traditional media have to offer but also to actually play them off each other, they will see an incredible return on any investment they make.

  Anyone waiting for the marketing landscape to stabilize before incorporating social media into his or her business strategy is living in a fantasy world. We’re riding a really, really fast train; the changes we’ve seen mark only the beginning of the transformations yet to come. Stable isn’t going to happen any time soon.

  So what to do? As always, it’s about hustle. Unfortunately, marketing has gotten harder at a time when many marketers have gotten softer. We’ve gotten used to running short sprints, not marathons, and we’re not built for the endurance game. That’s as true for many corporate-level marketers as it is for many entrepreneurs. Our great-grandparents were built for it. Whether they ran their own businesses or put in thirty years of service to a big company or factory, they were used to working their tails off with few of the technological innovations we can’t imagine working without. They’d never heard of work-life balance, and they knew better than to expect instant gratification. We crave both, but I think these will be luxuries in the Thank You Economy. The stars in this business era will be those who are consumed with their work (and happy about it) and have the patience to pursue one small victory at a time. This new economy offers tremendous opportunities to develop huge markets, strengthen brands, or build lasting businesses, provided you work for them with the intensity of Rocky Balboa training for his Cold War showdown in the snow-covered Soviet countryside. You’re in trouble only if you find that pill too hard to swallow.

  The Thank You Economy has radically altered our customers’ expectations, and businesses are going to have to get creative and personal in order to meet them. As we do, consumer expectations will change, and the marketing initiatives we put out that might now be met with “Wow!” will eventually be met with “Meh.” The key, then, is to start thinking ahead. All businesses must innovate to survive. Social media gives us the opportunity to figure out what people want before they even know they want it. Using social media to talk to customers is like getting access to the most honest focus group that’s ever sat around a conference table and not paying a dime for their input. We have to listen, participate in the conversation, ask questions, and solicit feedback. We have to be more involved, and more attentive, and more interested, than we have ever been. We have to be better.

  Part of being better will entail making sure that you’re weaving strong strands of Thank You Economy DNA, along with your own, into your brand or company. Then it’s about focusing your sights on aspects of your marketing strategy that until now might have been treated as secondary concerns.

  The lifetime value of a customer, for instance, is going to become a bigger consideration. The Internet has given customers an incredible number of places to spend their money, as well as new tools they can use to spread your message farther and wider. Social media allows you to get to know your customers well enough to gather a true idea of what their long-term value to your brand might be. Developing a powerful emotional connection could be all it takes to convince them to consolidate their spending with you. Plus, now that purchasing decisions are directly affected by consumers’ relationships to the people they communicate with on their social networking sites, staying aware of who your consumers know and who they talk to regularly will become increasingly important. Every interaction you engage in with them will have the potential to spread through their network via word of mouth. When businesses realize that they need to focus on investing in customers, not platforms, they will see amazing returns on that investment.

  Earned media, too, will become increasingly relevant. Just as there was a golden age of radio, a golden age of television, and one for movies, social media platforms have brought us into the golden age of earned media. Consumers are tired of being sold to. An op-ed article, blog post, or positive consumer review—the kind of free press that is often an organic result of a well-executed, engaging marketing campaign that allows traditional and social media platforms to work together—will go a long way toward making the marketing initiative you actually pay for stick longer and travel farther in the public’s consciousness. It’s bound to get harder to get earned media—now that plans like Facebook campaigns are gaining in popularity, the mainstream press won’t always fall all over itself to write about them—but while it lasts, it will be powerful, powerful stuff. Of course, the best of the best will always grab the press’s heartstrings, especially as technology continues to move forward to allow outstanding mobile and augmented reality campaigns.

  Brands should also do everything they can to gain first-mover advantage. Marketers have to keep their finger on the pulse of the culture and keep an eye on the incoming trains. Smart marketers shouldn’t ever get too comfortable in their seats. Brands and businesses that can see the potential of emerging platforms will always have an edge over their competition. The brands that show up first on these platforms—the ones launched by people like former Facebook or Google employees—and take the first crack at building relationships with the early adopters they find there will see their foresightedness pay off.

  Unless Wall Street undergoes a miraculous transformation and starts rewarding companies for their long-term strategies instead of almost exclusively for their short-term results, putting energy into hard-to-measure marathon plays such as lifetime customer value, earned media, and emerging markets will feel like a struggle, and even a risky proposition, to a lot of companies. The irony is that when executed properly, these marathons can reap dividends in a relatively short amount of time.

  The companies that soar in 2011 and beyond are those that will figure out a way to balance the short-term demands of Wall Street or investors with the long-term demands of the Thank You Economy. Their leaders will begin by weaving strong strands of their DNA, laced with good intent, into the top layer of their companies, and allow it to infiltrate every layer of their business. They will accept that the customers have most of the power and be glad to give it to them. They will hire individuals and create new departments dedicated to building long-term relationships with customers and potential customers. They will stop relying solely upon straight, traditional marketing channels to spread their message, and instead allow their content to be passed back and forth (and sometimes around and across and through) as many platforms as they can reach. They will treat their business as an extension of themselves, and care, care, care.

  People much smarter than I am have stated that we are living through a third industrial revolution.* But anyone who has been paying attention will realize that I’ve been saying the same thing (in my own style), for half a decade. The Thank You Economy is now, it’s here, it’s relevant, and I believe its scale may be bigger than any of us can even fathom. And it’s still very early.

  This is such an incredibly exciting time to be in business. I know I’m right about the Thank You Economy—once you’ve tasted Champagne, you know it the minute you taste it again. It may take a little longer than I anticipate for the total cultural transformation to take hold, but ten years from now, I’m going to be on the right side of history. I implore you to be there with me. We will one day dust off the bones of companies that fossilized because they didn’t think it could “scale,” or because they didn’t think it was worth the effort, or because they could not stop drawing lines in the sand. The day you recognize that the Thank You Economy exists, and you begin to take the steps necessary to execute properly within it, will be t
he day you ensure your business or brand a place in the future.

  PART IV

  Sawdust

  More Thoughts On…

  Starting Conversations

  If you’re a big brand like Coke or SunChips, your brand is being talked about and you need to address the topic head-on. When you’ve got that conversation covered, you can spread out to talk more generally about beverages, refreshment, summer, et cetera. But if you’re Sally’s Orange Soda, no one is talking about you, so you need to do the reverse—create a general soda conversation first. You need to jump into every relevant conversation you spot, much like I did when I talked to people about Chardonnay and Shiraz in the early days, long before I responded to @garyvee’s. Once those conversations are up and running, you can start to talk specifically about Sally’s Orange Soda.